Working Hours

I just left a position where I worked 10-12 hours nearly every day. I never received any extra time for those hours.  It was expected. It was the job.  There was no recognition for family time.  They did say you can go home – its an 8 hour day job. It was not because we didn’t have enough people and we had people who really needed our help.  (THe CIO expected us to stay as well and that is another topic), so I worked longer hours to get caught up on email, to go that extra mile, to sit on the phone with a user who could not understand the email on their phone because the newer technologies were just a bit beyond their understanding.   I worked those hours because someone needed me or I just needed it to get my head together and do some work when the phone was stopped ringing.

Now I understand that all those hours that I worked and management didn’t care about really didn’t help me.  My productivity fell off after the first few hours of overtime were logged.  I wasn’t doing myself any good.

I am now more balanced. I changed the makeup of my days before I left the position by organizing my day to get things done that benefited me.  Working out, Reading, Learning new ideas, looking for other ways to enhance my career and my life.  I now put down the computer when I leave work and try to make sure I get things done.   And yes…I leave work after 8 – 9 hours.

I just wish I had done it years ago.  I will never get that time back.